1 siderable trade. This article has been shipped, heretofore, without much judgment being exercised in the selection or assortment of the qualities, which has prevented the returns being so satisfactory as they otherwise would have been. American cheese is, for the most part, insufficiently pressed, which gives it, when cut, a porous or honeycomb appearance. It is also unpleasant in flavor, owing to the too free use of rennet. removal of these faults would very much enhance its value in the English market. The With respect to grain and flour, it will be understood that the new corn bill has placed the trade on a much more safe and steady tooting; though there will always be uncertainty, while the principle of the sliding scale of duties is preserved. On this branch of the trade no observations are required. Beside those articles of produce mentioned, there are, no doubt, others deserving the attention of shippers; but we consider those specfied as having the most immediate importance. The general directions now given being the result of our experience while engaged for some years exclusively in the produce trade, and being suggested by our personal inspection of provisions and of the modes of curing adopted in America, will be found, we conceive, not unimportant to those entering on the business. We have expressed our belief that, under the existing tariff, a large trade in produce will arise; but when we look at the rapid progress of free trade principles in Britain, and the urgency of the popular demand for cheap provisions, we may safely predict a much more extended trade within a few years, in consequence of the still further modification of our provision laws. JOHN & CHARLES KIRKPATRICK, Tongues, per cwt. Five per cent. extra is payable on the amount of the above duties. No 19. WASHINGTON, February 6, 1843. SIR: Agreeably to your request, I give a very brief description of the process used by the citizens of Vermont in the manufacture of sugar from the sap of the maple tree. The process, in the early settlement of the State, was very simple, being nothing more than evaporating the sap in iron kettles, usually about the capacity of ten gallons each, suspended over a fire made of logs, in the open air. When the sap is evaporated in the ratio of about ten or twelve gallons into one, the product is taken from the kettles, strained through a flannel bag, which takes from the sirup the leaves, coals, &c., which get into the kettles while over the fire. The sirup is then put into deep vessels, where it remains for two or three days to settle. The sirup is then carefully taken from the vessels, leaving the sediments, and returned to the kettles, with the addition of about a pint of skimmed milk to a kettle containing eight or nine gallons of sirup. It is then slowly heated, when most of the impurities remaining in the sirup will rise to the surface, and may be taken off with a skimmer. The sirup is then evaporated to the proper consistency, which is ascertained by cooling small quantities in a spoon, or in some small vessel. The product is then taken from the fire, and either stirred until it is cool, by which it becomes dry sugar, or, more commonly, it is put into a tub or trough, and left to cool, without stiring. This is afterward drained by drawing a plug from the bottom of the tub or trough, thus separating the molasses from the sugar. In the early settlement of the State, and even at the present time, in new settlements, the above has been the usual mode of making sugar. In the older settlements, buildings are erected within or near the sugar orchards. In these buildings large kettles are set in brick furnaces, for the purpose of evaporating the sap. In some of them, shallow pans, made of shect iron, about six inches in depth, and of various dimensions, are also used. These pans are also set in brick furnaces, and are believed to evap orate much faster than deep kettles of the same capacity. The common method of extracting the sap from the maple is, by boring into the tree about two inches, with a three-quarter-inch bit or auger. The sap is then conveyed into small tubs, holding three or four gallons each, called sap-buckets, by spiles slightly inserted into the tree. It takes about four gallons of sap to make one pound of sugar. The season for making sugar in Vermont commences between the middle of March and the first of April, as the spring is more or less forward, and lasts about three weeks. One hundred good trees will yield sap sufficient to make from three to five hundred weight of sugar. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, HENRY L. ELLSWORTH, Esq., SAMUEL C. CRAFTS. Commissioner of Patents. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Report of the operations of the Patent Office for 1842 Remarks, &c., on tabular estimate Progress of improvement Causes of improvement Elements of the estimate The season Review of the crops, Wheat Barley Oats Rye Buckwheat 17 18 19 20 Tobacco Cotton Rice Silk Sugar 21 22 26 26 29 Wine 35 Aggregate of the crops Other products not embraced in the table 35 35 Broomcorn Madder Safflower and saffron Sumach Cranberries Ginseng Eggs Pot and pearl ashes 35, 37 36 36 36 36 36 37 Castor oil Sheep Lard oil, &c. Sunflower oil Rapeseed oil Amount of lard and pork that might be exported 37 38, 81 39 41 41 41,93 43 44 |